“The die is cast.”

— Julius Caesar

As quoted in Vita Divi Iuli [The Life of the deified Julius] (121 CE) by Suetonius, paragraph 33 http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/suetonius/suet.caesar.html#33 (Caesar: … "Iacta alea est", inquit. – Caesar said … "the die is cast".)
Said when crossing the river Rubicon with his legions on 10 January, 49 BC, thus beginning the civil war with the forces of Pompey. The Rubicon river was the boundary of Gaul, the province Caesar had the authority to keep his army in. By crossing the river, he had committed an invasion of Italy.
A contrasting account from Plutarch, Life of Pompey, 60.2.9:
:Ἑλληνιστὶ πρὸς τοὺς παρόντας ἐκβοήσας, «Ἀνερρίφθω κύβος», [anerrhíphtho kúbos] διεβίβαζε τὸν στρατόν.
::He [Caesar] declared in Greek with loud voice to those who were present ‘Let the die be cast’ and led the army across.
: He was reportedly quoting the playwright Menander, specifically “Ἀρρηφόρῳ” (Arrephoria, or “The Flute-Girl”), according to Deipnosophistae, Book 13 http://remacle.org/bloodwolf/erudits/athenee/XIII.htm, paragraph 8, saying «Ἀνερρίφθω κύβος» (anerrhíphtho kúbos). The Greek translates rather as “let the die be cast!”, or “Let the game be ventured!”, which would instead translate in Latin as iacta ālea estō. According to Lewis and Short ( Online Dictionary: alea http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0059%3Aentry%3D%231776, Lewis and Short at the Perseus Project. See bottom of section I.).

Original

Alea iacta est.

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Julius Caesar 18

Roman politician and general -100–-44 BC

Stephen R. Lawhead (1950) American writer

Source: The Skin Map (2010), p. 78

“I have set my life upon a cast,
And I will stand the hazard of the die.”

William Shakespeare Richard III

Source: Richard III

“But, no. It was too late. Fortune’s die was cast. The cruel game had to be played to its end, no matter what anyone wanted.”

Glen Cook book Soldiers Live

Source: Soldiers Live (2000), Chapter 104, “Taglios: View from the Protector’s Windows” (p. 676)

“Using the proverb frequently in their mouths who enter upon dangerous and bold attempts, "The die is cast," he took the river.”

Plutarch book Parallel Lives

Parallel Lives, Caesar

“The snake which cannot cast its skin has to die. As well the minds which are prevented from changing their opinions; they cease to be mind.”

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist

“Caesar exclaimed: "Let us accept this as a sign from the Gods, and follow where they beckon, in vengeance on our double-dealing enemies. The die is cast."”
Tunc Caesar: "Eatur," inquit, "quo deorum ostenta et inimicorum iniquitas vocat. Iacta alea est," inquit.

Sueton book The Twelve Caesars

Source: The Twelve Caesars, Julius Caesar, Ch. 32

“By the time a person has achieved years adequate for choosing a direction, the die is cast and the moment has long since passed which determined the future.”

Zelda Fitzgerald (1900–1948) Novelist, wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald

“I am an an honest man
From where the palm tree grows,
And I want, before I die,
to cast these verses from my soul.”

José Martí (1853–1895) Poet, writer, Cuban nationalist leader

Yo soy un hombre sincero
De donde crece la palma
Y antes de morirme quiero
Echar mis versos del alma.
I (Yo soy un hombre sincero) as translated by Esther Allen in José Martí : Selected Writings (2002), p. 273, ISBN 0142437042
Variant translations:
A sincere man am I
From the land where palm trees grow,
And I want before I die
My soul's verses to bestow.
"A Sincere Man Am I" http://oldpoetry.com/opoem/46409-Jose-Marti-A-Sincere-Man-Am-I---Verse-I-, as translated by Manuel A. Tellechea, in Versos Sencillos: Simple Verses (1997) ISBN 1558852042
I am a sincere man
from where the palm tree grows,
and before I die I wish
to pour forth the verses from my soul.
Simple Verses (1891)

“Death on the cross means to suffer and to die as one rejected and cast out. It was by divine necessity that Jesus had to suffer and be rejected. Any attempt to hinder what is necessary is satanic.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945) German Lutheran pastor, theologian, dissident anti-Nazi

Source: Discipleship (1937), Discipleship and the Cross, p. 84.
Context: Jesus Christ has to suffer and be rejected. … Suffering and being rejected are not the same. Even in his suffering Jesus could have been the celebrated Christ. Indeed, the entire compassion and admiration of the world could focus on the suffering. Looked upon as something tragic, the suffering could in itself convey its own value, its own honor and dignity. But Jesus is the Christ who was rejected in his suffering. Rejection removed all dignity and honor from his suffering. It had to be dishonorable suffering. Suffering and rejection express in summary form the cross of Jesus. Death on the cross means to suffer and to die as one rejected and cast out. It was by divine necessity that Jesus had to suffer and be rejected. Any attempt to hinder what is necessary is satanic. Even, or especially, if such an attempt comes from the circle of disciples, because it intends to prevent Christ from being Christ. The fact that it is Peter, the rock of the church, who makes himself guilty doing this just after he has confessed Jesus to be the Christ and has been commissioned by Christ, shows that from its very beginning the church has taken offense at the suffering of Christ. It does not want that kind of Lord, and as Christ's church it does not want to be forced to accept the law of suffering from its Lord.

“It is debasing to die the way one does; it is intolerable to be exposed to an end over which we have no control, an end which lies in wait for us, overthrows us, casts us into the unnameable. ”

Emil M. Cioran (1911–1995) Romanian philosopher and essayist

The New Gods (1969)

“The die is cast.”

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